LitHub Daily: August 26, 2015

The Best of the Literary Internet, Every Day

Justin Taylor on the total weirdness of the book tour, “the part of the writing life least reconcilable with all of the others.” | Literary Hub

Brilliant female novelists vs. the institution of marriage: on the pre- and post-divorce writing of Edith Wharton, Clarice Lispector, and Colette. | The Boston Review

An interview with Lewis H. Lapham, consummate man of letters, author of over 600 essays, and discoverer of the fountain of youth. | Full Stop

Flesh, fluids, and excretions: morality and art in the sex scenes of Lidia Yuknavitch. | The New Yorker

“The notable difference between black excellence and white excellence is white excellence is achieved without having to battle racism.” Claudia Rankine’s profile of Serena Williams. | The New York Times

In praise of Patrick Bateman’s music criticism, the spiritual progenitor of every white guy’s music blog. | The New Inquiry

Alejandro Zambra and his editor discuss midnight phone calls, the difference between a snicker and a guffaw, and whether fiction is closer to lying or telling the truth. | McSweeney’s

Bloody spurts, broken bones, and twisted genres: Haints Stay and the myth of the Wild West. | The Oyster Review

On the Beckettian nature of Pac-Man and the Pac-Manian nature of a writer eating Eggos: the topography of You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine. | Blunderbuss Magazine

Also on Literary Hub: In praise of the new modernists · A poem by Solmaz Sharif · A story by Miles Klee about a family at the pool